An aperçu

There was, this morning, a good example of a phenomenon which I have experienced from time to time, a phenomenon which surely tells us something about how memories are indexed in the brain.

I was trying to call to mind the name of a senior civil servant, still in the world of work, whom I had occasionally come across when he was a junior civil servant. Cast about a bit, thinking of what I knew of the chap, then resorted to the alphabet wheeze. I review each letter of the alphabet in turn, trying to recall first names which start with the letter in question. Alan, Alex, Alexander. Benito, Benny, Benjamin. Colin, Christopher, Colum, Colm. David, Doreen, Daisy, Donald. And so on. Quite often, the first name of the person I am trying to find will pop out, and the surname quickly follows. Job done.

I do not try the same thing with surnames. I suppose the difference is that there are a lot more surnames than first names, or at least there used to be before the current craze of young parents for inventiveness and novelty in this department. Getting first names to pop into mind is more likely to produce the right one than getting surnames to pop into mind.

Whatever the truth of the matter, this morning, the technique worked and the full name was delivered less than a minute after the matter first came to mind.